Monastery at Large

Category: Life and Shadow

  • A Man of No Land

    Cades Cove, Tennessee
    Cades Cove, Tennessee

    I’m like a tree after its leaves have fallen:

    Without immediate identity;

    Nothing attached to me.

    In the mist I stand quietly,

    My roots sunk deep in substance no one sees.

    Nothing will sway me.

  • Urban Life: Common pigeons in Atlanta

    Common pigeons (Columba livia). Peachtree Center, Atlanta.
    Common pigeons (Columba livia). Peachtree Center, Atlanta.

    These little rebels don’t care about the rules.

    They spend their days watching all the dull, desperate people noisily shuffling through the streets below, quietly defiant in their nonchalance.

    My kind of birds.

  • Atmosphere: Old Friends

    Tim Tingle. Tree carving at Orr Park. Montevallo, Alabama.
    Tim Tingle. Tree carving at Orr Park. Montevallo, Alabama.
    Tim Tingle. Tree carving at Orr Park. Montevallo, Alabama.

    Tim Tingle. Tree carvings at Orr Park. Montevallo, Alabama.

    To hear these old friends of mine talk, you’d think there was something in the water that night.

    Well, I’m here to tell you it wasn’t like that.

    The place was an unholy mess, and no one was doing a damn thing about it.

    Sometimes you just gotta take matters into your own hands and carve your own niche.

    Can’t nobody else do it for you.

  • Piedmont Natives: Gulf Fritillary

    Gulf fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae)
    Gulf fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae)

    Here’s a fine fall friend I recently met on the Atlanta BeltLine.

    Hooray for public arboretums!

  • Urban Life: The Morning Train

    Looking toward the northbound MARTA train on Donnelly Avenue SW, West End, Atlanta
    Looking toward the northbound MARTA train on Donnelly Avenue SW, West End, Atlanta

  • Piedmont Natives: Delaware Skipper on Joe Pye Weed

    Delaware skipper (Anatrytone logan) pollinating Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
    Delaware skipper (Anatrytone logan) pollinating Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)

    So many beneficial native plants are given misleading names. Chief among them is Joe Pye weed, a beautiful bloomer of late summer and early fall that draws pollinators with its pink and purple flowers.

    I found this sweet Delaware skipper on a Joe Pye weed that was growing on the slope of a retention pond.

  • Piedmont Natives: Ironweed

    Ironweed (Veronia gigantea)
    Ironweed (Veronia gigantea)

    Ironweed‘s ungraceful name is quite unfortunate: it’s truly a lovely native plant, with delicate violet blooms that appear in late summer.

    It’s also a favorite of pollinators and tough as nails, growing freely along roadsides or in any patch of land that hasn’t been recently fucked with by human hands—I found this one beside a parking lot.

  • Piedmont Natives: Scarlet hibiscus

    Swamp hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus)
    Scarlet hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus)

    I tend to avoid swampy areas of the Southeast, particularly in the warmer months—too many dangerous reptiles lurking about.

    However, there are some lovely plants that come from the Southern wetlands, including the beautiful swamp hibiscus, which produces giant, colorful blooms from summer through autumn.

    Thankfully, the plant can be grown outside swamps, too, so I don’t have to stumble across a gator to enjoy it.

    Swamp hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus)
    Scarlet hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus)

  • Mostly Mundane: A Little Color

    Rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus)
    Rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus)

    The world can be so fucking drab.

    Sometimes you just need a little color.

  • Urban Life: Porcelain gray

    Porcelain gray (Protoboarmia porcelaria)
    Porcelain gray (Protoboarmia porcelaria)

    I keep finding new friends outside my door.

    This appears to be a porcelain gray, a common gray moth found all over eastern North America. Welcome!